Halo: Reclaimer's Return
by brolyssj1
Summary: back again! John relives his past with Cortana and tries to get her back. Can he do it, or will he suffer the same fate as her? for those of you who haven't seen halo 5, Spoilers await!


I gripped the edge of the hard light bridge with enough force to shatter normal human bones, pain was shearing all over my body as I slowly oriented myself, I pulled myself up and saw the didact struggling against cortanas bonding. I produced one of those cube shaped promethian grenades and dashed forward, shoving the armed grenade at him. harmless, he smacked me away with his fist and pain hit me, again. when he attempted to lift me the grenade exploded in his chest, making him stumble back, look down at his chest , up to me, then fall into the void.

I tried to stand but I was too weak, I crawled over to the nuke. every muscle in my body told me, no they were screaming at me to stop. I raised my arm and with a pain filled yell, I slammed my fist on the nuke, destroying the composer. all I saw was black, until I realized I was alive, I was crouching.

I stood up, all my muscles were sore. I realized something was missing. "cortana" I said, checking too see if she was there, 1 no 2 seconds went by. "cortana do you read?" I said, panic about to come into my system. "cortana come in" I said, a little edge of panic filling my voice when I noticed a faint blue glow in the interior of my helmet. I turned my head and I saw her standing in front of me, plain as day. in shock I asked "how?" "Oh I'm the strangest thing you've seen all day?" she said. relief filled me as I thought of a way to get out of the giant blue cube we were in, I could finally think straight with cortana near. so if were here-" I said before she cut me off "you did it... just like you always do" she said, her voice cracking slightly as a hurt look spread on her face.

"so how do we get out of here?" I asked as I looked her in the eyes through my visor, her look shot multiple pangs of guilt to shoot trough my heart. "I'm not coming with you this time..." she said in a soft but hurt voice. "what?..." I said with a hint of anger but mostly denial fear and shock. "most of me is down there... I only held enough back to get you off the ship..." she said very sadly. I couldn't believe this, after all this she just gives up? "no, that's not!- we go together" I said angrily but mixed with shock fear and confusion.

"its already been done..." she said with a cracking sigh. "I am not leaving you here!" I replied sternly. "john..." she replied with the same sigh.

she slowly walked up and touched the black alloy under armor and the olive drab torso piece, and it glowed faint blue where she touched. "I've waited so long to do that..." her voice cracked as she said with a very sad sigh. I felt a lot of guilt, fear and a bit of anger inside of me. "it was my job to take care of you..." I said with guilt. " we were supposed to take care of each other... and we did" she said as her voice cracked. I felt horrible, I felt like dying. she slowly backed away, "cortana... please... wait..." was all I could say in my pathetic state as I tried reaching forwards. "welcome home... john" she said as the walls dissapeared and she vanished too. I think that's the moment when I truly lost my humanity, became a machine. Something must have died inside of me. all I could do was look up as the wall crumbled.

"infinity actual this is pelican nine 6er we found em. The pilot said over the com. He opened the rear hatch and I drifted in and sat down as the hatch closed. The ship accelerated towards the hangar of infinity. on the bridge of infinity, all the soldiers snapped to attention as I walked down the aisle, to the view port. I strode quicky pasr them and to the view port.

As I was watching earth a familiar voice rang out "mind if I joined you?" "Of course not sir" I said while staring out the window. " at ease it feels kind of odd for you to call me sir..." He shifted awkwardly, then continued to speak. "Beautiful isn't she? I don't get to see her often enough." He lasky said as he shifted and looked back at earth. "grew up in New Harmony, attended Corbulo Military Academy. never saw earth in person until I was an adult... but I still think of her as home" he said as he continued talking "you don't talk much do you?..." He concluded and craned his head towards me. "Chief I won't pretend to know how you feel... I've lost people I cared about but, never anything like you're going through." he finally finished.

"our duty, as soldiers is to protect humanity... whatever the cost..." I said turning my head away blankly, kind of easy to do when only the machine part of you is left. Guess I left my last shred of humanity with her. "You say that, like soldiers and humanity are two different things... soldiers aren't machines, were just people..." He said and my gaze shot towards him. "I'll let you have the deck to yourself" he said that and left the deck.

"she said that to me once, about being a machine..." I said out loud to no one in particular. I made a promise, and I will keep that promise... whatever the cost.

I walked to the refit station and passed Sarah palmers, many SPARTAN 4's slipped on their treadmills to get a look at me. I turned to my fitting station and stepped in where technicians were waiting to remove my armor. As the techs removed my armor, the didact talked in the background.

"In this hour of victory... we taste only defeat, I ask why... we are forerunners, guardians of all that exists. The roots of the Galaxy have grown deep under our careful tending. where there is life... the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil. Our strength is a luminous sun towards which all intelligence blossoms... And the impervious shelter beneath which it has prospered. I stand before you, accused of the sin, of assuring forerunner ascendancy, of saving us from this fate, where we are forced to... recede. humanity stands as the greatest threat in the galaxy, refusing to eradicate them is a fool's gambit! we squander eons in the darkness... while they seize our triumphs for their own. the mantle of responsibility belongs to forerunners alone! think of my acts, as you will... but do not doubt the reality... the reclamation... has already begun... and we are hopeless to stop it"

AN.: plz tell me if you want this continued, just saying it might get sad if your a hardcore halo fan, Pm me if you want this to stay and I'm doing custom characters, just send me the armor description, personality, language, weapons, race (ex: covenant,human, flood, forerunners) if your a covenant what are you? Grunt, elite, etc. Are you guy, girl or what? Also doing custom AI companions for characters or just AIs.


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